As you’ll read in this month’s cover story, Stanbery Development Co. has spent more than four years navigating local politics and state regulations in its quest to redevelop a vacant office complex in Parsippany. But the firm is now on a path toward fulfilling its vision, which calls for a mixed-use, downtown-style development anchored by high-end restaurants and retail.

R.J. Brunelli & Co. has hired Peter S. Reinhart, the head of Monmouth University’s real estate program and a former longtime executive with Hovnanian Enterprises, to lead a new division within the retail brokerage focused on mixed-use developments.

New Jersey Future’s annual Redevelopment Forum drew a crowd hundreds to New Brunswick recently, in a show of support for big-picture planning, adaptive reuse and public-private collaboration when it comes to development in the Garden State.

On Dec. 3, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection published amendments to the state’s Stormwater Management Rule (NJAC 7.8) that, when adopted, will change fundamentally the way stormwater management systems are designed in New Jersey. The key amendment will replace the existing requirement, which asks developers to incorporate so-called non-structural strategies “to the maximum extent practicable,” with a firm requirement to use a technique known as green infrastructure in new development.

Gov. Phil Murphy has signed into law a bill that requires NJ Transit to establish an office of transit-oriented development and conduct an annual inventory of its real estate holdings, potentially paving the way for new opportunities across the state.

Insiders say that now is the time to discern which municipalities will be receptive to the prospect of legalized recreational cannabis, if and when it becomes a legal industry in New Jersey. That prospect is likely many months from being a reality, if not more, but the concept has the support of Gov. Phil Murphy and several well-known lawmakers.